The present invention relates to rotatable storage racks used to support articles, such as shoes, and more particularly to an improved shoe carousel device for supporting a multitude of shoes in a confined space with easy and ready access being provided to any of those shoes selected by the user.
Household storage space for clothing and accessory articles is generally found to be insufficient in present homes and apartments, with closets being typically provided with a standard amount of space for hanging clothes and only a minimal amount of shelved or rack space for accessory articles, especially shoes. When combined with the often found surplus of shoes accumulated today, particularly by women, this condition of insufficient storage space results in disorganized and inefficient piling of shoes within already crowded closet spaces or in the stacking of the shoes in boxes in or around the closet area on otherwise usable floor space makes shoe selection difficult and tends to cause those boxed shoes to be disregarded by the user.
There have been numerous shoe racks and other footwear support devices that have been designed and developed in the prior art for use in closets and other confined spaces. Generally designed to make more efficient use of closet areas for shoe storage, these prior art shoe racks have been typically multi-tiered and rotatable about a vertical shaft in the nature of a xe2x80x9clazy Susanxe2x80x9d so that shoes may be stored on different shelf levels and made accessible to the user by rotating the whole rack. While some of these xe2x80x9clazy Susanxe2x80x9d types of shoe racks appear to be portable, most have required a fixed installation of the shaft between fixed upper and lower horizontal surfaces with bearing members at the top and bottom of the shaft to allow the whole rack to revolve in place when heavily loaded with shoes. While being effective in the greater use of closet space and in providing accessibility to a larger number of shoes, these whole turning racks have presented difficulties in their installation and their adaptability for use in a variety of confined spaces.
Other prior art shoe racks have been free standing and thus portable in nature, generally having forms of wire racks rotatably mounted at different vertical levels on a central shaft to store and access the shoes stored thereon upon rotation. While those free standing wire shoe racks have proven effective in supporting and handling a limited number of shoes, the stability and free turning characteristics of their structure has been reduced under the weight of a large number of shoes and as a result, their effective storage capacity is limited. Furthermore, the wire rack formations found in the prior art, both in the free-standing and installed types of rotatable shoe racks, have tended to work well in supporting high-heeled women""s shoes but have not been quite suitable for lesser heeled footwear.
As such, it can be appreciated that there continues to be a need for a new and improved rotary shoe rack device that addresses the limitations of the prior art in strength of construction, ease of use and deployment, and suitability for handling a larger number and wider variety of shoes.
Accordingly, it is general purpose and object of the present invention to provide an improved rotatable shoe rack device that makes efficient use of storage space, such as closets and the like, and better handles a full capacity and wider variety of shoes than those shoe rack constructions heretofore developed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved shoe rack device that is lightweight and portable yet provides increased stability in storing and handling of a large number of shoes.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a rotatable shoe rack that is multi-level in its construction with separate levels being adjustable and independently rotatable to provide greater viewability and accessibility to the shoes stored thereon.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved rotatable shoe rack device that is normally free standing and able to be moved easily yet is adaptable for fixed installation at a particular location.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a rotatable shoe rack that is reasonably inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble and deploy, and reliable in its operation.
Briefly, these and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by a shoe carousel device particularly suitable for use in closets and other confined areas and comprising a series of rotatable wire rack members spaced apart and coaxially mounted upon a central shaft so that each respective wire rack member rotates independently at separate locations along the shaft. The shaft is adapted to be stationed upon a floor surface in a substantially vertical position supported within a base stand and may be adjustable in its length to provide floor to ceiling engagement when necessary. The wire rack members are separately mounted and supported upon the shaft in substantially horizontal planes and are specially formed to hold and display a variety of shoes upon the surface of the rack member. Each rack member is constructed from a plurality of radial spokes centrally connected to a hub member at inner ends of the spokes. The radial spokes are each further formed having a downwardly inclined segment to provide each rack member with a conical configuration, the outermost ends of the radial spokes each being formed at an acute angle relative to the inclined segment that provides a substantially vertical rim raised around the bottom of each rack member. A series of concentric wire rings having progressively increasing diameters are attached to and over the radial spokes to provide an inclined support surface for storing a variety of shoes retained in place and during rotation by the raised rim.
For a better understanding of these and other aspects of the present invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals and characters designate like parts throughout the figures thereof.